Did life on Earth begin in space?

In what’s being called a groundbreaking paper that could ignite more debate over the creation of life, an award-winning NASA scientist is suggesting that we are not alone in the universe — and, in fact, life on Earth may have come from somewhere out of this world.

After probing an extremely rare class of meteorite called the CI1 carbonaceous meteorite — of which only nine are known to exist on our planet, including one found near Revelstoke, B.C. — Richard Hoover found “indigenous fossils” of bacterial life within the masses.

The findings, published in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology, suggest that life on the meteorites existed, and even grew, on the masses before they entered the Earth’s atmosphere, meaning the creation of life is possible in the icy reaches of outer space.

“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet Earth,” Mr. Hoover told FoxNews.com.

Mr. Hoover, who has spent more than a decade travelling to remote areas around the world to study meteorites, said an analysis of “freshly fractured” pieces of the meteorite revealed microfossils, some of which were not so different than those found on Earth.

A summary of the lengthy study — written by the journal itself — says Mr. Hoover “concludes these fossilized bacteria are not Earthly contaminants but are the fossilized remains of living organisms which lived in the parent bodies of these meteors, (such as) comets, moons, and other astral bodies.”

But, more shockingly, the journal notes that “the implications are that life is everywhere, and that life on Earth may have come from other planets.”

As a result of the “controversial nature” of the claim, the publication has extended an open call to more than 5,000 scientists, inviting them to critique the study. Those reactions — “both pro and con” — will be published alongside the paper in the coming weeks.

“This field of study has just barely been touched — because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible,” Mr. Hoover told FoxNews.com.

Mr. Hoover was the 2009 recipient of the Gold Medal of SPIE, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, for his work in X-ray and extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, optics, ranging from microscopes to telescopes.